According to the French manufacturer, it will be first of its kind service in Europe, with four autonomous ZOE electric cars (plus an i Cristal autonomous urban shuttle jointly developed by Transdev and Lohr).

The fleet is expected to be made available in September of this year and will run until December 2019.

Users will be able to call the vehicles running on three routes covering a distance of 10 kilometers, with 17 stops across the district and a link to the Rouen public transportation system.

After the trial and further improvements, we expect larger-scale projects of autonomous mobility services.

10 photos

“The Rouen Normandy Autonomous Lab service will provide extensive coverage in Rouen’s “Technopôle du Madrillet” business park in Saint-Etienne du Rouvray through connections to the “Technopôle” tram stop. The goal is to provide mobility solutions in an area to which conventional public transportation services are poorly suited, in a first-mile and last-mile approach.

Users can call a vehicle in real-time from the smartphone app.

The vehicles will run on three routes covering a distance of 10 kilometers, with 17 stops across the district and a link to the Rouen public transportation system.

The four Renault ZOE all-electric cars used in the project are already being tested on open roads and are equipped with autonomous systems developed by Transdev and Renault. The tests cover all considerations related to typical traffic conditions, such as other vehicles, intersections, rotaries and building exits. The fleet will also feature an i-Cristal autonomous urban shuttle jointly developed by Transdev and Lohr.

After a period of tests, this on-demand experimental service is due to be made available to the public in September 2018, subject to obtaining the necessary approvals, and will the run until December 2019. This trial will provide an opportunity to fine-tune the technology and gain insight into usage and take-up among local residents to enable necessary adjustments.

Rouen Normandy Autonomous Lab embodies a joint commitment by all partners to invest in the future of mobility by pooling their respective expertise and cutting-edge capabilities in support of a pioneering drive to develop innovative, sustainable transportation solutions.

The city of Rouen and the Normandy region aim to offer Norman people an innovative new service that is a first in Europe and an initial step toward developing a state-of-the-art industry cluster dedicated to future mobility solutions.

Banque des Territoires sees the experiment as a tangible showcase for the “Smart City” initiative launched in November 2016 to help roll out innovations in cities and regions. Banque des Territoires teams have supported from the start this innovative project with upstream engineering to help structure the group of partners.

Transdev is a subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts and brings a wealth of expertise to the project as a provider of transportation services (operation, fleet management and customer relations) and its technologies for autonomous transit systems (supervision, user app, embedded software and smart infrastructure).

Groupe Renault is a European leader in electric vehicles and has a wealth of expertise as a carmaker and provider of smart, autonomous technologies and mobility services. The project is part of the group’s strategy of offering automated, on-demand mobility services as of 2022.

Matmut Group, historically based in the Rouen area, offers insight into issues related to auto insurance to help understand how self-driving cars will affect the future of mobility and the responsibilities these changes will bring.

A groundbreaking initiative to promote shared mobility using autonomous vehicles as part of an existing public transportation system in and around the city of Rouen

The pioneering project is unique in its comprehensive drive to build a “complete” autonomous transportation system by testing innovative technologies able to create an all encompassing transportation system and provide an open-road service at speeds equivalent to those of conventional vehicles while ensuring passenger safety.

The system includes a user app to request transportation, along with a fleet control room, smart infrastructure and secure telecommunications networks. The operator can monitor the fleet from the control room and take action where needed to reduce the speed of vehicles or bring them to a halt. Audio and video communications between passengers and the control room will also be possible at any time.

The system was developed through a partnership between Groupe Renault and Transdev, with each providing key expertise: Renault for the vehicle and smart, autonomous technology; Transdev for the tracking system, smart infrastructure and secure telecommunications. Matmut also covers all issues related to insurance, responsibility and future regulations.

Rouen Normandy Autonomous Lab is an integral part of the public transportation system provided by the Métropole de Rouen transit authority. The latter’s close involvement in the project, which is also backed by the Normandy region, reflects a commitment among local authorities to integrate these new services and step up the transformation toward more efficient smart cities and better quality of life.

The initiative is underpinned by a drive to foster people’s acceptance of on-demand solutions that use autonomous vehicles while empowering the public to play an active part.”

Leave a Reply

9 Comments on "Renault Conducts Final Tests Before Launch Of Autonomous ZOE"

newestoldestmost voted

viriato

This kind of news, demonstrates that we are yet a bit far to have a real autonomous car in the market. So, I can’t understand how so many people put their lives and the lives of the rest of drivers in risk, reading, playing with their phones, watching movies or even sleeping, while the car “drives” without supervision.

Vote Up30Vote Down Reply

4 months ago

Heisenberght 3.0

With WAYMO, Tesla, etc. in the autonomous race Renault completely went under the radar.

It’s nice to see so many competitors pushing hard for mobility as a service. I still remember the “early days discussions” about 5 years ago… Who would have thought that 2018 would already be the year when regular people would be able to order an autonomous EV using their smartphone.

Pheonix (WAYMO), Rouen (Renault), …
(most likely I don’t know of all the pilot projects to be launched in 2018 so I don’t even try… Hey Insideevs team. A map would be handy… Really something happening right now!)

Those real world tests will be very interesting.
Limiting it to a certain area reduces the upfront complexity. From there on the companies can reach out to other locations and in the end create a worldwide network of on demand mobility. The result will be cheaper and less stressful personal transportation.

Vote Up10Vote Down Reply

4 months ago

viriato

Renault is quite advanced in this tech. Next year they will launch the new Clio and will be level 2. Its obvious that affordable cars, can’t offer the same tech level than premium cars, but as Goshn said, they have the tech (you can see the Concept Symbioz, fully functional), and now is the time to make it safe and affordable for mass vehicles in the next years.

Vote Up00Vote Down Reply

4 months ago

Heisenberght 3.0

Yes they obviously are. And it makes me wonder why we two people are the only ones commenting on this article.

I guess Renault just isn’t fancy enough… Or all of the insideevs readers are stuck in yet in another shorting/trolling/cooling discussion….

Personally I am really happy to see Renault being able to start as soon as September THIS year. That’s awesome! It sure looks as if Rouen officials are really backing this project. Let’s hope for a larger rollout.

Vote Up20Vote Down Reply

4 months ago

viriato

Well, maybe Renault hasn’t the appeal that other makers, and I think this web is more focused on USA market.

I live in Spain where Renault is almost perceived as a local maker with 3 factories, I own a Renault and is relevant for me, but I understand that this not happens for a typical north american reader.

Vote Up00Vote Down Reply

4 months ago

Heisenberght 3.0

Si, parece que este articulo es solo para nosotros…

Vote Up00Vote Down Reply

4 months ago

viriato

Un saludo. 😉

Vote Up00Vote Down Reply

4 months ago

Heisenberght 3.0

Judging from the picture I guess the system (also) relies on communication with infrastructure. While this would not be my favorable approach due to cost and speed of rollout, I still think that if it helps to get real world data on the usage of such a service then it’s a good thing.

BTW. I hope that 4 vehicles are sufficient to call it real world data… With a total coverage of 10 km those vehicles should have an average distance of 2.5 km which at a guesstimated average (inner city) speed of 20 km/h would result in average wait times of 7.5 minutes (not regarding the fact that the closest vehicle might already be in use…) seems quite a bit… But hey one can hope for more autonomous ZOEs to hit Rouens roads.